Essar Telecom CEO Jayant Khosla, has accepted an offer from Bharti Airtel to head up its operations in seven African countries, this according to The Times of India

Last week, Bharti Airtel announced the closure of its $9-billion purchase of African operations of Kuwait’s Zain Telecom, and said it would move swiftly and aggressively to expand its newly-acquired overseas domain.

Bharti intends to divide its African operations into three separate divisions, each of which will be headed by a CEO, an executive with Bharti said.

These divisions include Bharti Anglophone (comprising the English speaking nations—Ghana , Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leonne, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia), Bharti Francophone (comprising the French speaking nations—Burkina Faso, DRC, Chad, Congo B, Madagascar, Niger, Gabon), while Nigeria, the continent’s largest market will be a separate unit. Mr Khosla will be the CEO of the Anglophone division.

The Times also reports that Bharti Airtel’s executive director for enterprise services Rajan Swaroop will soon take over as chief executive officer and managing director for its Nigeria operations, while its current CEO for West Bengal and Orissa, Deepak Srivastava will be the COO and ED in Nigeria.